Under the patronage of International Federation of Photographic Art (FIAP) the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH) is organizing the Seventh Session of the Emirates Photography Competition (EPC) 2012.

…The EPC believes in the inclusive nature of art and its timeless ability to unite the interests and creativity of human beings everywhere, as well as the ability of photography to facilitate interaction and communication amongst people. Therefore the EPC’s Seventh Edition will be open to all photographers from around the world.

But when you try to register for the competition, you can see that they accept entries from every nation on Earth – except for one, Israel.

Needless to say, this is at odds with the printed, noble ideals espoused on the website.

The contest was under the patronage of FIAP, the International Federation of Photographic Art. On FIAP’s website it declares

All considerations of political, ideological or racial order are absolutely banned from the activities of FIAP.

On the morning of August 3rd, I asked the readers of my blog to contact the president of FIAP, Mr. Emile Wanderscheid, to investigate this breach of ethics.

As this is a clear discrimination and an infringement with the FIAP rules, the FIAP Patronage Service wrote two hours ago an E-mail to the organiser telling him that he is formally requested within 24 hours to add all the countries including Israel to the drop down country list or to delete this list completely from the online entry form.

2012/116 3rd Emirates Photography Competition

This Patronage has been withdrawn for non respect of the FIAP ethics
Ce patronage a été annulé pour non respect des rÃ¨gles éthiques de la FIAP

Kudos to FIAP for doing the right thing and upholding their standards in the face of anti-Israel discrimination. Hopefully they are telling the organizers of the contest to take their name off the competition as a sponsor.

But beyond this small victory against Arab attempts to discriminate against Israel, this episode shows something else. Despite the fact that we hear bad news all the time about how “Israel is isolated” and similar charges, this shows that that the pro-Israel community can make a difference – and we can gain allies.